Obama and Romney Tell Jokes, Utilize Humor Cartridge, Respectively

Yesterday evening at the annual Al Smith dinner in New York City, a philanthropic event quadrennially patronized by presidential condetenders, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney told genuinely funny jokes! Yes, even in Mitt Romney’s case! Yes, Mitt Romney. Yes of course that Mitt Romney. No, not being ironic. To wit:

Noting the event’s white-tie dress code, Romney told the tuxedo’d audience: “It’s nice to finally relax and wear what Ann and I wear around the house.” (Todd Akin, reading from home, mumbles under his breath, “Ha. Funny. Because women can’t wear pants.”) This was one of several times that Romney addressed hurtful and persistent rumors that he is a rich person who regularly seeks out the company of other rich people. “I’ve already seen early reports from tonight’s dinner,” he said. “Headline: ‘Obama Embraced by Catholics, Romney Dines with Rich People.’”

Obama was funny too, though occasionally in a sadder way. “This is the third time that Governor Romney and I have met recently. As some of you may have noticed, I had a lot more energy in our second debate. I felt really well-rested after the nice, long nap I had in the first debate.” [Cartoonish gulp.] The president was better when he was not attempting to be self-deprecating, as there is so much about him to deprecate lately that America does not need any help from the man himself. His most rhapsodic “zinger,” if you will: “Sometimes it feels like this race has dragged on forever, but Paul Ryan assured me we’ve only been running for two hours and 50-something minutes.” It’s not quite“wearing a paint-splattered Wesleyan University sweatshirt that reeks of weed,” but “mocking Paul Ryan for being a fraudulent ur-bro” is a pretty stellar base-pleasing gambit.